From Arrival in Philadelphia to Settlement in Lancaster County

What was Henrich Hiestand's situation when the ship he was on docked in Philadelphia?

We do not know.  But here are some possible scenarios:

1. Perhaps Henrich had enough money to pay all of his travel expenses and fees, as well as enough money to survive in America until he could find a job that would pay for his living expenses until he could purchase his own farm.  But given his age (early 20s) when he arrived in Philadelphia, it would seem unlikely that he could have saved enough money to pay for his customs and transport fees, as well as food and other essentials for such a long and expensive trip.  But maybe some wealthy Mennonites in the Netherlands supplied him with the necessary funds for the journey.  Some Mennonites in the Netherlands were relatively well off and generous in aiding poor Mennonites bound for America.  Perhaps Henrich was the beneficiary of this kind of Dutch aid.  In the earlier years of Palatine emigration most of the Rhineland emigrants traveled with all or part of the money needed for the fares, which changed as the emigration numbers increased toward the middle of the 18th century.  If Henrich emigrated in early to mid-1727, he would have been in the earliest stage of the great Palatine emigration movement that surged until 1755, the beginning of the Seven Years War (known in America as the French and Indian War).  Palatines arriving in Philadelphia during the years of heaviest emigration were the ones who struggled most to become independent in America and develop a reasonably comfortable life.  So when we read of the severe economic struggles the Palatines faced upon landing in Philadelphia during 1730s through 1750s, we need to realize that Henrich may (or may not) have arrived under such hardships. 
    
2. Like so many other Palatine emigrants, Henrich may have been forced to indenture himself to some wealthy Pennsylvanian who paid his debt to the captain and provided room and board for him until he could "redeem" himself by a few years of servitude.  Other than his April 1, 1728 naturalization at Conestoga, PA (then part of Chester County, now part of Lancaster County), we have no record of Henrich Hiestand's whereabouts in America for several years after he arrived here.  There is enough unaccounted-for time to include a typical indentureship of two or three years, although a transatlantic fare for a young man was roughly equivalent to one year's wages as per one source* and three or four years according to another source**.

   *Page 155 of Trade in Strangers: The Beginnings of Mass Migration to North America by Marianne S. Wokeck (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999).

   In 1722 Palatine servants or Redemptioners, were sold to serve for a term of three or four years, at £ 10 each, to pay their freight and fare across. **Page 39 of Volume XI, No. 1 (January 1910) of The Pennsylvania-German Magazine in "The Germans of Pennsylvania: Their Coming and Conflicts with the Irish" by Dr. T.P. Meyer.

    

   Arrival in Philadelphia Sometime Prior to September 14, 1727 Naturalization April 1, 1728 ? Settled on Hempfield Township Land ? Hempfield Township Land Surveyed May 20, 1735   How did Henrich Hiestand support himself for this time?

    
3. Henrich might have had a friendly contact who had preceded him to America (relative or acquaintance from his homeland) who helped him get settled in Pennsylvania.  One of the cornerstones of Mennonite life was mutual aid, which included hospitality extended to fellow Mennonites in need.  "Newcomers to America could count on spending the first few weeks adjusting to their new homeland in eastern Pennsylvania at the tables of other Mennonites who were already well established." (Source: Page 144 of Stories How Mennonites Came to Be by John D. Roth)

   Often Palatine emigrants were met at the port in Philadelphia by relatives or friends who had already traversed the Atlantic and established homes and sources of income here.  These contacts from "back home" generally provided temporary food and shelter and assistance in getting newly arrived immigrant loved ones settled in and established on their own.  But were there other Hiestand family members or close friends of Henrich in America when he arrived?

   First Known Hiestands in America We know that Henrich Hiestand was not the first Hiestand to come to America.  Küngold ("Kinget") Hiestand (born January, 1658 in Richterswil, Switzerland) married Michael Reiff, also of Richterswil.  Because of persecution, this young Mennonite couple moved to the Palatinate in Germany, probably Ibersheim first and then Mettenheim, where Michael died.  One child, Anna (Anneli), was born to Kinget (Küngold) and Michael Reiff before Michael died.  Note: Ibersheim, Mettenheim, and Alsheim are all within a very few miles (or km) of each other, north of Worms, Germany on the west side of the Rhine River. After Michael Reiff's death, Kinget Hiestand Reiff married Johannes "Hans" Stauffer, a 40 year-old bachelor*, in 1685 in Alsheim.  Hans Stauffer had other known interactions with Hiestands in the Palatinate, probably many of them.  For example, on December 29, 1704 two of "Henry Hiestand's" servants "got 8 ells of ticking" from him and in 1705, Stauffer purchased "2 malters of rye" from "Henry Hiestand."  Henry (Henrich) was a common name in the Hiestand family in the Palatinate, so we do not know which Henry this was.  But our immigrant ancestor with the same name was born in 1704, so it could not have been our Henrich Hiestand.  *Hans Stauffer was 27 years old and a bachelor on January 7, 1672. Source: Page 403 of Documents of Brotherly Love, Volume I by James W. Lowry (Ohio Amish Library, 2007). In 1702, Anna Reiff (daughter of Kinget Hiestand Reiff Stauffer and step-daughter of Johannes Stauffer) married Gerhart Clemens from Nieder-Florsheim (20 km south of Alsheim), son of Jacob Clemens.  The "Clements" (English spelling of the Dutch "Clemens") family was originally from England but, because of their Puritan faith had fled to the Netherlands where they became Mennonites.  Why or how Gerhart ended up in the Palatinate, from the Netherlands, is unknown, but Hans Stauffer's diary seems to indicate that Anna and Gerhart were married in the Alsheim area.  Note: Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) is said to come from the same English family that Gerhard Clemens came from. On January 10, 1709, the Rhine closed due to ice and remained closed for five weeks.  The 1708-1709 winter was the coldest winter in Europe in the past 500 years.  And the War of Spanish Succession (1702-1714) was wreaking havoc on the Palatinate--life there was again becoming intolerable.  In about March of 1709, Gerhart Clemens sold his possessions to his father and brother, preparing to travel to America.  Gerhart's notebook indicates that by October 1709 he was in Pennsylvania: "Anno 1709, October 10, I bought a horse from Heinrich Cassel [known to have been in Germantown, Pennsylvania]."  Gerhart and Anna Reiff Clemens initially settled on the Skippack Creek in what is now Montgomery County, PA, where Mennonites had begun settling in 1702.  They were pioneers of the Clemens family in America.  In the Lists of Germans from the Palatinate Who Came to England in 1709, compiled at that time by John Tribbeko (Chaplain to his late Royal Highness Prince George of Denmark) and George Andrew Ruperti (Minister of the German Lutheran Church of the Savoye), there 6,520 "poor Germans," including men, women, and children, on these lists. Only 13 families were "Baptists" (Anabaptists) and three families were referred to as Mennonites; others were Catholics, Lutherans, or Reformed.  Gerhard Clemens, his wife, and two sons (ages 5 and 1 1/2) were in the first group, taken in on May 6, 1709.  Gerhard was listed with the husbandmen and vinedressers, but it was also noted that he was a linen cloth weaver.  (Pages 5-7) Gerhart and Anna's emigration to America, apparently prompted the Stauffers to also emigrate.  Kinget and Hans Stauffer arrived with their family in Philadelphia on September 23, 1710 on the ship Maria Hope and settled near Valley Forge, PA, 20 miles or so southwest of the Skippack community.  Their names were not on any of the 1709 lists compiled by Tribbeko and Ruperti. But there was another Hiestand known to have been in America prior to when our Henrich Hiestand arrived, if our Henrich arrived later than April 1726.  On April 15, 1726 Abraham Hiestand (first known male Hiestand in America) sold a cow to Gerhart (Gerhard) Clemens in Lower Salford Township [Skippack Mennonite settlement area] of what is now Montgomery County, PA (previously part of Philadelphia County).  From the account book of Gerhart Clemens: "I bought a cow of Abraham Heistand, April 15, 1726, for L3 ts."  How was this Abraham Hiestand related to Kinget Hiestand Reiff Stauffer, mother-in-law of Gerhart Clemens?  We do not know, but it is likely that he was a close relative of Kinget.  And we do not know the relationship of Kinget Hiestand and our Henrich Hiestand, but they certainly would have been related to some degree and acquainted with each other, even though Henrich would have been more than 40 years younger than Kinget Hiestand Stauffer. The distance from Philadelphia to the site of the Skippack Mennonite settlement and to the Valley Forge area is only about 30 miles.  Assuming Henrich knew that he had relatives so close to his port of disembarkation (Philadelphia), it seems feasible, maybe even probable, that he would have found a "soft landing" in America with Skippack relatives or other friends from the Palatinate before moving on in search of his own land.  But, we know of no record that indicates he ever lived with or visited any of these Hiestand relatives.  Major sources of information in this section: Bower, Rev. Henry S. A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Daniel Stauffer and Hans Bauer and Other Pioneers, Together with Historical and Biographical Sketches, and a Short History of the Mennonites. Harleysville, PA: News Printing House, 1897. Clemens, Jacob Cassel. Genealogical History of the Clemens Family and Descendants of the Pioneer, Gerhart Clemens. Franconia, PA: Franconia Mennonite Historical Society, 1948. Ruth, John L. Maintaining the Right Fellowship. Franconia, PA: Franconia Mennonite Conference, 1984. (Reprinted in 2014 by Wipf and Stock Publishers) Stauffer, W.T. (translator of Hans Stauffer Notebooks). "Hans Stauffer Note-books," pages 95-117 of The Perkiomen Region, Volume X, Number 3, July 1932, whole number 38.

Caspar Wistar (1696-1752) and Henrich Hiestand's backgrounds were alike in several ways.  Caspar was eight years older than Henrich Hiestand and arrived in Philadelphia at age 21 on September 16, 1717, probably about ten years before Henrich's arrival.  Both were single young German-speaking immigrants when they arrived.  Caspar grew up in the Neckar River valley in Germany, in a small village of Waldhilsbach of the east side of the Rhine River, southeast of Heidelberg.  Henrich was from the small farming village of Ibersheim, on the west side of the Rhine River, about  45 miles northwest of Waldhilsbach.  So, both were Palatine Rhinelanders. 

But there were some things about their backgrounds in the Palatinate and their fortunes in America that were quite different.  Caspar's father was a forester for the Elector of the Palatinate and he grew up in a mixed-religion home--his father was Lutheran and his mother was a member of the Reformed Church into which Caspar was baptized.  Henrich's family were exiled from Switzerland because of their unwavering commitment to the Anabaptist/Mennonite faith.  And they were farmers working the land around Ibersheim under restrictions not imposed on families of other faiths. 

In Philadelphia, Caspar learned the business of making buttons and soon ventured into the business of real estate investing.  By the time Henrich Hiestand arrived in Philadelphia, Caspar had already become a relatively wealthy man.  But not forgetting his roots, he assisted many German-speaking immigrants with loans and land sales.  His German ethnicity and bilingual language skills, profited him greatly.  But, even as he gained wealth from these connections to German immigrants flooding into Philadelphia, at the same time he also provided them services that were helpful to, and appreciated by, them.

In Rosalind Beiler's research on Caspar Wistar, she discovered some information about Henrich Hiestand's early years in America that is of great interest to those of us who claim Henrich Hiestand as our immigrant ancestor.

What we learn or confirm from these two books:

• Heinrich Hiestand's family lived in Ibersheimer Hoff in the Palatinate (Southwest Germany near the city of Worms).

• Heinrich was definitely living in Pennsylvania in and before 1733.

• Heinrich did not come to America with a lot of money.

• Heinrich did have access to some financial resources back in Germany.

• For some reason or reasons, it took Caspar Wistar nine years to collect the payment for Heinrich's debt.

• If the nine years extended from 1733 to 1742, then Heinrich paid his debt to Wistar at about the same time he was preparing to sell his Lancaster County, PA land in order to move to Virginia.
   

Some Questions About Caspar Wistar's Financial Assistance:

• Was this money used to pay for Henrich's transatlantic fare to America?  Or...

• Was this money used to pay for the 226 acres Henrich purchased in Hempfield Township of Lancaster County?

See Rosalind Beiler's comments below.

• Did Henrich purchase his Hempfield Township land from Caspar Wistar?
  Note: A map showing Wistar's land holdings in Pennsylvania does not indicate the he owned land in the area of Hempfield Township.  Source: Page 117 of Immigrant and Entrepreneur by Rosalind Beiler (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008).

Kent Hiestand's Comments About the Wistar Correspondence